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Former tabloid magazine publisher David Pecker told a jury in former President Donald Trump's New York criminal trial that he paid a Playboy model $150,000 to buy the rights to publish her allegation of a one-month affair with Mr. Trump. He said he intended to eliminate the story "to help the presidential candidate" in the 2016 election, who was also an early friend of his.
During the question-and-answer session that lasted more than three hours, former President Trump's lawyer, Emil Bove, tried to cast doubt on Mr. Pecker's memory of how he helped Mr. Trump.
Mr. Pecker, once publisher of The National Enquirer magazine, acknowledged several times that his testimony during four days of questioning this week was not much different from interviews he had with investigators several years ago. For the most part, however, Mr. Pecker rejected the criticism leveled at him by lawyer Bove.
But Mr. Pecker agreed with Bove's lawyer that the payment to Karen McDougal, named Playboy's 1998 Model of the Year, was more than an attempt to ensure her silence about the relationship with Mr. Trump to hide the information from voters eight years ago.
American Media Inc., the parent company of the Enquirer magazine, published 65 of Ms. McDougal's health-related articles, which were actually written by other people and were advertised on the front pages of the company's magazines.
When the defense lawyer finished questioning Mr. Pecker, 72, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass quickly mentioned the agreement American Media had signed with federal authorities to avoid charges of violating campaign finance laws through payments to Ms. McDougal.
In the agreement, it is stated that the "main goal" was "to silence the story of the model in order to avoid influencing the elections".
Mr. Pecker had stated during his four days of testimony that the appearance of articles in magazines owned by the American Media company was "to cover up the real purpose. The real goal was to get the rights to her story forever so that it would never be published.
Mr Pecker had told the 12-member jury on Thursday that he believed Ms McDougal's story about the affair with Mr Trump, although he has denied it.
Mr. Pecker said in his testimony that Mr. Trump wanted to keep the story away from voters with damaging data ahead of his successful 2016 presidential bid.
Mr. Pecker testified that he told Mr. Trump that he should "buy the story and take it off the market," but that the magazine did it for him. Mr. Pecker said the magazine thought it would be reimbursed for this, but that never happened.
Another witness was Rhona Graff, an early executive assistant to Mr. Trump at the Trump Organization real estate company. She told jurors she had once seen Ms. Daniels on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, where Mr. Trump's office is located.
Ms Graff, aged 34, confirmed to prosecutors that Ms McDougal's name and the name "Stormy" were on the company's login registers.
After her brief testimony, Mr. Trump rose from his seat at the table where the accused stands and greeted Ms. Graff as she left the courtroom, briefly shaking her hand.
As the trial wound down for this week, prosecutor Rebecca Mangold began cross-examining a third witness, Gary Farro, a banker who says he helped Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump's ex-lawyer and ex-broker, open a bank account to facilitate making payments to Ms. Daniels.
Mr. Farro said that Mr. Cohen transferred money from his funds to make the payments. Prosecutors said Mr. Cohen was subsequently reimbursed by Mr. Trump in 2017 after he became president. These are also the transfers at the heart of the charges brought against the former president.
Mr Trump has denied Ms McDougal's version and all 34 charges he faces in the New York criminal case, which is one of four indictments against a former US president for the first time in history.
Mr Trump has also denied the other 54 charges against him, but the New York court case is perhaps the only one that can be settled before the November 5 presidential election. According to national polls, some of Mr. Trump's supporters may change their minds if he is convicted.
If found guilty in New York, Mr. Trump could be sentenced to probation or up to four years in prison.
Mr Pecker said that during a conversation in 2016, Mr Trump had described Ms McDougal as "a good girl", giving him the impression he "knew her".
A year later, when Mr. Trump had already become president, Mr. Pecker said that Mr. Trump had asked him as they walked to the White House, "how is Karen?" Mr. Pecker said he replied that she was fine. "He is staying calm", he recalled saying to former president Trump./ VOA
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